The political outlook for bus services in England has stabilised since the 2024 general election, BSOG reform inactivity aside. Longer-term funding was welcomed, and the industry now has a regulatory position that, while not to everyone’s taste, is clear on the basics.
But that stability still has some shadows. The Iran war’s impact on fuel costs that looks likely to linger for months and woeful bus average speeds are among them. Will those be joined by fallout from the local elections of 7 May?
The latter has thrown the government into turmoil, with the spectre of Andy Burnham as future Prime Minister rising again. He has paid close attention to bus services in Greater Manchester throughout a drawn-out reform process, and was never afraid to articulate dissatisfaction with deregulated market dynamics or the operators within them.
Members of the bus industry have long held that uncertainty inhibits progress. Wales and Scotland are unlikely to see any change to existing trajectories for their bus services post-devolved elections, but when franchising in Wales was earlier at the centre of debate, capital expenditure hardly ran riot.
The next area of focus for political agenda-setting is bus average speeds. Government buy-in is required, something that has started. Talk of change there generating 147 million additional passenger trips per year in England should help.
Underlining how faster buses create a virtuous circle for patronage and costs is a clear imperative, but so too is making plain that wider progress on buses must in no way be slowed by temporary political upheaval.
